Regional Plan Presented

Group Offers Development Proposal

MetroHartford Millennium leaders completed work Monday on a first-ever regional economic development plan, and ranked a proposal to make Bradley Airport an international import center as a priority.

``We got it done,'' Karl Krapek, president of Pratt & Whitney and chairman of the Millennium steering committee, said minutes after the committee unanimously adopted the plan. ``Now the work begins.''

Indeed, those behind the effort say completion of a plan doesn't mean that much. But getting specific items on the plan accomplished, such as the import center, would mean something, they say.

A new group of corporate chiefs, community leaders and politicians, possibly including Gov. John G. Rowland, will convene in November to start working on the plan.

The Millennium leaders hope to have an annual budget of $2.3 million to tackle the job. Much of the money will be raised through a ``Millennium Circle of Investors'' -- corporations, individuals and foundations that would be asked to donate from $1,000 to $100,000. The group has commitments for more than $500,000 -- including $100,000 each from Pratt & Whitney, Aetna and The Hartford Courant, Millennium leaders said.

The goal of the Millennium project is to get the region's economy moving again. Among the initiatives proposed are helping the large number of precision manufacturing companies in Greater Hartford find qualified workers, boosting the city of Hartford and reducing the cost of government by limiting suburban sprawl.

For some of the big-ticket development schemes that have yet to become reality, including a new university campus and a proposed sports and technology center for downtown Hartford, the plan's completion brought happy news.

Using 26 different measures, a Millennium consultant scored those two ideas near the head of a list of 14 high-impact, high-visibility development projects. The rating was based on the economic benefits the projects would bring for the region and their compliance with the overall Millennium plan.

The top-ranked project, however, was a plan advanced by the Bradley Development League to make the region's airport into a major international gateway for flowers, foods, pharmaceuticals and other perishables being flown into the Northeast.

``The long-range vision would be to have perishables destined for the Northeast, from wherever on the globe they're coming from, pass through Bradley,'' said Oley Carpp, a director of the development league, a collaborative effort of Suffield, Windsor, Windsor Locks, East Granby and the state Department of Transportation.

``We're just thrilled to be at the top of the list right now,'' said Carpp, who also is economic development director for Suffield.

Initial plans call for construction of a $9.8 million air cargo and federal inspection center on the northwest side of the airport near the East Granby-Suffield line. The center, which would be privately financed, could open in 1998, said Kathleen Rose, project manager for the LYNXS Group, the Austin, Texas-based developer of the project.

The so-called Perishables Center, along with the $50 million downtown Hartford university center and the $40 million sports and technology center -- which could be in the Hartford Civic Center mall and may include ESPN as a tenant -- made up the group highest ranked by the consultant, Abeles Phillips Preiss & Shapiro Inc. of New York City.

It's unclear at this point how the campus, and the sports and technology center would be financed or when development might begin.

Another major capital project, a new $45 million Science Center of Connecticut proposed for the banks of the Connecticut River in East Hartford, scored slighly lower. While the science center got credit as being a major new tourist attraction for the region, it received lower marks for its effect on Hartford.

``I'm not disappointed by that ranking given what is also on the list ahead of us,'' said Richard J. Wasserman, president of the science center board.

Wasserman said, however, that a new science center would bring a major benefit to downtown Hartford because of Riverfront Recapture Inc.'s work to reconnect downtown to the river.

``While the science center is in East Hartford, I think Riverfront is going to extend downtown out to the river and across to the science center,'' Wasserman said.

The Griffin Line, a $340 million proposal to build a light-rail trolley connection between Hartford and the airport that has been under discussion for a decade, was 11th of the 14 projects evaluated.

At the bottom of the list?

A $5 million equestrian center proposed for Keney Park in Hartford.

``It would -- at only 25 to 30 jobs -- not have many direct economic impacts,'' the consultant's draft report said.

Between now and the first meeting of the Millennium management group in late November, Krapek will continue recruiting members, including he hopes, people such as Rowland or Lt. Gov. M. Jodi Rell.

Dean Pagani, a Rowland spokesman, couldn't say Monday if Rowland or Rell would serve, although he said the governor would want a representative on the board.

The birth of the management group and its $2.3 million development fund will help determine whether the Millennium project can boost the regional economy, improve the quality of the region's workforce and inject life into the central city of Hartford, said P. Anthony Giorgio, president of the Connecticut Capitol Region Growth Council.

``I guess we're going to be judged,'' Giorgio said. ``That's what leadership is all about.''